Overview

This comprehensive monograph accompanies the first full retrospective to explore the groundbreaking art of Jack Whitten, one of the foremost American artists of the postwar period, working between the 1960s and 2010s in New York. Jack Whitten (American, 1939-2018) changed the way we see art and society. He defied traditional boundaries between abstraction and representation, pictures and things, culture and technology, individual identity and global history. Raised under the ""American Apartheid"" of the segregated South in the 1940s, Whitten undertook an extraordinary journey in becoming an artist, convinced that by changing form, he could help change the world. Despite pressure from peers to create figurative art, he was a key proponent of creating abstract art that responded to social turmoil; to his own identity as a Black artist; and to sea changes in technology and ecology. Over 50 extraordinary years, he invented new ways of painting through a series of artistic innovations and strategies that are the first of their kind. Published to accompany the first retrospective of Whitten's expansive practice, this richly illustrated catalogue presents the full range of his career across all media. An overview essay by curator Michelle Kuo and focused texts by acclaimed art historians, curators, conservators, and artists on individual works and series present new research and scholarship, advancing our understanding of the artist's work. A selection of the Whitten's own writings and previously unpublished archival materials bring into focus an artist deeply engaged with social issues, race, world politics, music, and science, and shed light on his infinitely complex and ambitious explorations of process, materials, and form. Edited by Michelle Kuo, with contributions by Sampada Aranke, Anna Deavere Smith, Michael Duffy, Mark Godfrey, Michelle Kuo, George Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Richard Shiff, and Annie Wilker. Chronology by Kiko Aebi and David Sledge. Bibliography by Helena Klevorn, Eana Kim, Dana Liljegren, and David Sledge.

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9781633451704

Table of Contents

Reviews

[Jack Whitten's] work influenced generations of artists -- from Andy Warhol to Glenn Ligon -- but looked like nothing else before or since.--M.H. Miller ""T Magazine"" For Whitten, one of the great painters of the past half century, everything was light--people, places, paintings, all of it. He was less interested in depicting light than in embodying it in paint, no small task.--Alex Greenberger ""ArtNews"" Persistently original, restlessly evolving, and uncharmed by fashion.--Ariella Budick ""The Financial Times"" The late Jack Whitten refused categorization in favor of forging his own way through the 1960s New York art scene. The painter used distinctive techniques, making marks with materials such as Afro combs, saws, and squeegees. These and more examples of his enduring legacy will be on view in his first full retrospective, plus several pieces on public display for the first time.--Natalie Haddad ""Hyperallergic"" The show's more than 175 works will span nearly six decades of [Jack Whitten's] practice, which explored the Civil Rights Movement, science, and technology via an impressive range of disciplines including painting, sculpture, collage, photography, printmaking, and music. A tenor saxophonist, he brought an improvisational approach to his work.--Julie Belcove ""Robb Report"" What makes Whitten remarkable is more than just his embrace of ambiguity or his technical experimentation. It's his ability to use abstraction to create palimpsests of poetic meaning, inspired by jazz and hyper-attuned to the implications of modern communication.--Sebastian Smee ""The Washington Post"" Whitten spoke, with wishful optimism, of wanting to be an artist-citizen of the world, a world in which 'there is no race, no color, no gender, no territorial hangups, no religion, no politics. There is only life.' Life is what this great show of his fantastically inventive art is filled with.--Holland Cotter ""The New York Times""

[A] breathtaking, deeply researched glimpse of a career that unfolded in one long eureka.--Julian Lucas ""The New York Times"" A remarkable aspect of Kim's oeuvre is how ASL, written English, musical notation, and gestural mark-making are fused into a coherent, unified language--John Vincler ""Cultured"" Endlessly inventive, [Jack Whitten] mastered complex techniques to animate his visceral imagery.--R.C. Baker ""Village Voice"" Jack Whitten's paintings are like voids you fall into before finding you don't want to leave.--Camille Okhio ""Elle Decor"" The pieces on view in 'The Messenger' - Whitten's retrospective at MoMA - exceed painting: they reach past the medium, live beyond its edges.--Zoe Hopkins ""Frieze"" The American artist moved from the segregated South to the New York art world and beyond as he forged unique processes of painting and sculpting, the textured, totemic results of which are now on view in a staggering retrospective.--James Panero ""The Wall Street Journal"" To walk through the MoMA show and marvel at Whitten's polymath abilities, his deep political and social engagement, and his restless imagination is to be reminded all over again of the loss to ourselves and our culture that we did not know and appreciate a talent like Whitten's better when he was alive.--Marion Maneker ""Puck"" [Jack Whitten's] work influenced generations of artists -- from Andy Warhol to Glenn Ligon -- but looked like nothing else before or since.--M.H. Miller ""T Magazine"" For Whitten, one of the great painters of the past half century, everything was light--people, places, paintings, all of it. He was less interested in depicting light than in embodying it in paint, no small task.--Alex Greenberger ""ArtNews"" Persistently original, restlessly evolving, and uncharmed by fashion.--Ariella Budick ""The Financial Times"" The late Jack Whitten refused categorization in favor of forging his own way through the 1960s New York art scene. The painter used distinctive techniques, making marks with materials such as Afro combs, saws, and squeegees. These and more examples of his enduring legacy will be on view in his first full retrospective, plus several pieces on public display for the first time.--Natalie Haddad ""Hyperallergic"" The show's more than 175 works will span nearly six decades of [Jack Whitten's] practice, which explored the Civil Rights Movement, science, and technology via an impressive range of disciplines including painting, sculpture, collage, photography, printmaking, and music. A tenor saxophonist, he brought an improvisational approach to his work.--Julie Belcove ""Robb Report"" What makes Whitten remarkable is more than just his embrace of ambiguity or his technical experimentation. It's his ability to use abstraction to create palimpsests of poetic meaning, inspired by jazz and hyper-attuned to the implications of modern communication.--Sebastian Smee ""The Washington Post"" Whitten spoke, with wishful optimism, of wanting to be an artist-citizen of the world, a world in which 'there is no race, no color, no gender, no territorial hangups, no religion, no politics. There is only life.' Life is what this great show of his fantastically inventive art is filled with.--Holland Cotter ""The New York Times""

Author Information

Michelle Kuo is Chief Curator at Large and Publisher at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sampada Aranke is an Associate Professor of Art History and Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, author, and professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University. Michael Duffy is Paintings Conservator in the Department of Conservation at MoMA. Mark Godfrey is an art historian, critic, and curator based in London. George E. Lewis is an American composer, musicologist, and trombonist. He is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music and Area Chair in Composition at Columbia University. Glenn Ligon is an artist based in New York. Julie Mehretu is an artist based in New York. Richard Shiff is the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at The University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Center for the Study of Modernism. Annie Wilker is a Paper Conservator in the Department of Conservation at MoMA. Kiko Aebi is the Katz Curator at the Colby College Museum of Art. Eana Kim is an art historian and curator and former curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art. Helena Klevorn is the Curatorial Assistant to the Chief Curator at Large and Publisher at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dana Liljegren is a Curatorial Assistant in the department of Painting & Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. David Sledge is an art historian and curator and former Mellon-Marron Research Consortium Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art. Jack Whitten (1939-2018) was a pioneering American artist renowned for his abstract paintings and sculptures. Born in Bessemer, Alabama, he spent his career working as a painter in New York City and sculptor in Crete. His innovative techniques in acrylic paint redefined the possibilities of the medium. This landmark survey at MoMA foregrounds an artist who transformed the relationship between art and society.

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